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International Journal of Environmental... Nov 2022There is growing debate in the parenting literature as to whether using physical punishment to discipline children is an effective strategy or leads to the development... (Review)
Review
There is growing debate in the parenting literature as to whether using physical punishment to discipline children is an effective strategy or leads to the development of aggressive behaviors and other antisocial attributes. The aim of the current literature review is to examine the association between harsh physical discipline and the development of externalizing behaviors in children, as well as the suggested moderators of this relationship. Secondly, the findings regarding the effects of harsh physical discipline on children's educational outcomes are reviewed. Articles were selected from relevant databases while maintaining an inclusion and exclusion criteria, with a total of 22 articles included in this review. Strong associations between parental corporal punishment and a range of child behaviors were indicated by the literature, and cultural normativeness was implicated as a moderator of these effects. Results regarding the role of parental warmth as a moderator did not provide a firm conclusion. Finally, the findings suggest that when a child is subjected to physical discipline in the home, their life at school may be adversely affected by impaired cognitive performance, peer isolation, and behavioral problems. The primary limitation of the studies reviewed is the use of self-report data and correlational analyses, ruling out the possibility of inferring causal relations. Nonetheless, the results indicate the necessity of encouraging parents and caregivers to avoid physical punishment as a disciplinary tactic while providing them with the tools to explore alternative practices.
Topics: Child; Humans; Punishment; Parenting; Aggression; Problem Behavior; Schools
PubMed: 36361265
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192114385 -
Systematic Reviews Dec 2022Physical punishment at home and in schools is widespread around the world. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have synthesized evidence, mostly from high-income...
BACKGROUND
Physical punishment at home and in schools is widespread around the world. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have synthesized evidence, mostly from high-income countries (HICs), showing that physical punishment relates to multiple detrimental individual outcomes. Yet, less work has been done to synthesize the evidence on the association between physical punishment at home and schools and child, adolescent, and adult outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where more than 90% of children live and physical punishment is most socially normative and prevalent. In this manuscript, we present a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis on the characteristics of the research, associations, and variation in associations, between physical punishment at home and in schools and child, adolescent, and adult outcomes in LMICs.
METHODS
We will conduct a review of studies published in peer-reviewed journals using quantitative methods to assess the association between physical punishment in childhood and/or adolescence and individual outcomes in LMICs. We will search for studies in 10 different databases using keywords in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Chinese related to physical punishment. We will extract qualitative data from the studies and the statistics needed to transform all study-level effect sizes into standardized mean difference effect sizes. For the analyses, we will employ multi-level meta-analyses to use multiple effect sizes per study and leverage within-study variation as well as between study variation using moderation analysis. Besides the meta-analyses, we will also conduct a narrative synthesis of the findings.
DISCUSSION
The proposed systematic review and meta-analysis will provide timely evidence to inform global research, policy, and practice on the links between physical punishment and lifelong individual outcomes.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION
PROSPERO CRD42022347346.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Humans; Developing Countries; Meta-Analysis as Topic; Punishment; Systematic Reviews as Topic
PubMed: 36539801
DOI: 10.1186/s13643-022-02154-5 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2022People assign less punishment to individuals who inflict harm collectively, compared to those who do so alone. We show that this arises from judgments of diminished...
People assign less punishment to individuals who inflict harm collectively, compared to those who do so alone. We show that this arises from judgments of diminished individual causal responsibility in the collective cases. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 1002) assigned less punishment to individuals involved in collective actions leading to intentional and accidental deaths, but not failed attempts, emphasizing that harmful outcomes, but not malicious intentions, were necessary and sufficient for the diffusion of punishment. Experiments 2.a compared the diffusion of punishment for harmful actions with 'victimless' purity violations (e.g., eating a dead human's flesh as a group; N = 752). In victimless cases, where the question of causal responsibility for harm does not arise, diffusion of collective responsibility was greatly reduced-an outcome replicated in Experiment 2.b (N = 479). Together, the results are consistent with discounting in causal attribution as the underlying mechanism of reduction in proposed punishment for collective harmful actions.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Judgment; Punishment; Social Behavior; Social Perception
PubMed: 36097011
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19156-x -
Nature Communications Sep 2023Theoretical and empirical accounts suggest that adolescence is associated with heightened reward learning and impulsivity. Experimental tasks and computational models...
Theoretical and empirical accounts suggest that adolescence is associated with heightened reward learning and impulsivity. Experimental tasks and computational models that can dissociate reward learning from the tendency to initiate actions impulsively (action initiation bias) are thus critical to characterise the mechanisms that drive developmental differences. However, existing work has rarely quantified both learning ability and action initiation, or it has relied on small samples. Here, using computational modelling of a learning task collected from a large sample (N = 742, 9-18 years, 11 countries), we test differences in reward and punishment learning and action initiation from childhood to adolescence. Computational modelling reveals that whilst punishment learning rates increase with age, reward learning remains stable. In parallel, action initiation biases decrease with age. Results are similar when considering pubertal stage instead of chronological age. We conclude that heightened reward responsivity in adolescence can reflect differences in action initiation rather than enhanced reward learning.
Topics: Child; Humans; Adolescent; Punishment; Cognition; Learning; Computer Simulation; Reward
PubMed: 37709750
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41124-w -
Proceedings. Biological Sciences Nov 2022Reciprocal fairness, in the form of punishment and reward, is at the core of human societal order. Its underlying neural mechanisms are, however, not fully understood....
Reciprocal fairness, in the form of punishment and reward, is at the core of human societal order. Its underlying neural mechanisms are, however, not fully understood. We systemize suggestive evidence regarding the involvement of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in reciprocal fairness in three cognitive mechanisms (, and ). We test them and provide novel insights in a comprehensive behavioural experiment with non-invasive brain stimulation where participants can punish greedy actions and reward generous actions. Brain stimulation of either brain area decreases reward and punishment when reciprocation is costly but unexpectedly increases reward when it is non-costly. None of the hypothesized mechanisms fully accounts for the observed behaviour, and the asymmetric involvement of the investigated brain areas in punishment and reward suggests that different psychological mechanisms are underlying punishing selfishness and rewarding generosity. We propose that, for reciprocal punishment, the rDLPFC and the mPFC process self-relevant information, in terms of both personal cost and personal involvement; for reciprocal reward, these brain regions are involved in controlling selfish and pure reciprocity motives, while simultaneously promoting the enforcement of fairness norms. These insights bear importance for endeavours to build biologically plausible models of human behaviour.
Topics: Humans; Punishment; Reward; Prefrontal Cortex; Brain; Motivation
PubMed: 36321495
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1590 -
BMC Medical Education May 2022People with substance use disorder, and pregnant women especially, are subject to a lot of stigmas, which can prevent optimal accessibility and quality of care. In this...
BACKGROUND
People with substance use disorder, and pregnant women especially, are subject to a lot of stigmas, which can prevent optimal accessibility and quality of care. In this survey, we investigated attitudes of final year medical students regarding substance use during pregnancy and identified the factors that influence these attitudes.
METHOD
This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019 and 2020 in Belgium using the short version of the "Substance Abuse Attitude Survey" questionnaire. We focused on two items regarding punishment of substance use during pregnancy. We analysed the concordance between these two, their correlation with other items (e.g. stereotyping, morality, forced withdrawal, low treatment optimism) and the association between respondents' opinion on punishment and their sociodemographic data.
RESULTS
The response rate was 65.2% (370/567 online and face-to face questionnaires). 19.2% of respondents were in favour of punishment for alcohol use (n = 353) and 15.1% for drug use (n = 356) during pregnancy. The agreement analysis between the two items showed that 14.3% of students were in favour of punishing both pregnant women who use drugs and those using alcohol. Respondents tended to be more in favour of punishment if they were male students, older, their mothers' had a lower education level or had no personal or family history of substance use. Attitudes appeared to be more punitive among students with limited contact with people with substance use disorder (i.e. none or limited to hospital). Students intending to specialise in internal medicine were more in favour of punishment of women whereas none of those intending to specialise in psychiatry were in favour.
CONCLUSION
Our study shows that about 20% of surveyed medical students favoured punishing substance-using pregnant women. Awareness and training work seems to be necessary to ensure adequate care and support for this already vulnerable population.
Topics: Attitude; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Pregnancy; Students, Medical; Substance-Related Disorders; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 35501752
DOI: 10.1186/s12909-022-03394-8 -
ELife Nov 2022Neocortex is classically divided into distinct areas, each specializing in different function, but all could benefit from reinforcement feedback to inform and update...
Neocortex is classically divided into distinct areas, each specializing in different function, but all could benefit from reinforcement feedback to inform and update local processing. Yet it remains elusive how global signals like reward and punishment are represented in local cortical computations. Previously, we identified a cortical neuron type, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-expressing interneurons, in auditory cortex that is recruited by behavioral reinforcers and mediates disinhibitory control by inhibiting other inhibitory neurons. As the same disinhibitory cortical circuit is present virtually throughout cortex, we wondered whether VIP neurons are likewise recruited by reinforcers throughout cortex. We monitored VIP neural activity in dozens of cortical regions using three-dimensional random access two-photon microscopy and fiber photometry while mice learned an auditory discrimination task. We found that reward and punishment during initial learning produce rapid, cortex-wide activation of most VIP interneurons. This global recruitment mode showed variations in temporal dynamics in individual neurons and across areas. Neither the weak sensory tuning of VIP interneurons in visual cortex nor their arousal state modulation was fully predictive of reinforcer responses. We suggest that the global response mode of cortical VIP interneurons supports a cell-type-specific circuit mechanism by which organism-level information about reinforcers regulates local circuit processing and plasticity.
Topics: Mice; Animals; Punishment; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide; Reward; Neurons; Interneurons
PubMed: 36416886
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.78815 -
ELife Jun 2021Punishment maximises the probability of our individual survival by reducing behaviours that cause us harm, and also sustains trust and fairness in groups essential for... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
Punishment maximises the probability of our individual survival by reducing behaviours that cause us harm, and also sustains trust and fairness in groups essential for social cohesion. However, some individuals are more sensitive to punishment than others and these differences in punishment sensitivity have been linked to a variety of decision-making deficits and psychopathologies. The mechanisms for why individuals differ in punishment sensitivity are poorly understood, although recent studies of conditioned punishment in rodents highlight a key role for punishment contingency detection (Jean-Richard-Dit-Bressel et al., 2019). Here, we applied a novel 'Planets and Pirates' conditioned punishment task in humans, allowing us to identify the mechanisms for why individuals differ in their sensitivity to punishment. We show that punishment sensitivity is bimodally distributed in a large sample of normal participants. Sensitive and insensitive individuals equally liked reward and showed similar rates of reward-seeking. They also equally disliked punishment and did not differ in their valuation of cues that signalled punishment. However, sensitive and insensitive individuals differed profoundly in their capacity to detect and learn volitional control over aversive outcomes. Punishment insensitive individuals did not learn the instrumental contingencies, so they could not withhold behaviour that caused punishment and could not generate appropriately selective behaviours to prevent impending punishment. These differences in punishment sensitivity could not be explained by individual differences in behavioural inhibition, impulsivity, or anxiety. This bimodal punishment sensitivity and these deficits in instrumental contingency learning are identical to those dictating punishment sensitivity in non-human animals, suggesting that they are general properties of aversive learning and decision-making.
Topics: Biological Variation, Population; Choice Behavior; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; Female; Humans; Impulsive Behavior; Inhibition, Psychological; Male; Punishment; Reward; Task Performance and Analysis; Video Games; Volition
PubMed: 34085930
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.69594 -
Molecular Psychiatry Dec 2023The brain's ability to associate threats with external stimuli is vital to execute essential behaviours including avoidance. Disruption of this process contributes...
The brain's ability to associate threats with external stimuli is vital to execute essential behaviours including avoidance. Disruption of this process contributes instead to the emergence of pathological traits which are common in addiction and depression. However, the mechanisms and neural dynamics at the single-cell resolution underlying the encoding of associative learning remain elusive. Here, employing a Pavlovian discrimination task in mice we investigate how neuronal populations in the lateral habenula (LHb), a subcortical nucleus whose excitation underlies negative affect, encode the association between conditioned stimuli and a punishment (unconditioned stimulus). Large population single-unit recordings in the LHb reveal both excitatory and inhibitory responses to aversive stimuli. Additionally, local optical inhibition prevents the formation of cue discrimination during associative learning, demonstrating a critical role of LHb activity in this process. Accordingly, longitudinal in vivo two-photon imaging tracking LHb calcium neuronal dynamics during conditioning reveals an upward or downward shift of individual neurons' CS-evoked responses. While recordings in acute slices indicate strengthening of synaptic excitation after conditioning, support vector machine algorithms suggest that postsynaptic dynamics to punishment-predictive cues represent behavioral cue discrimination. To examine the presynaptic signaling in LHb participating in learning we monitored neurotransmitter dynamics with genetically-encoded indicators in behaving mice. While glutamate, GABA, and serotonin release in LHb remain stable across associative learning, we observe enhanced acetylcholine signaling developing throughout conditioning. In summary, converging presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms in the LHb underlie the transformation of neutral cues in valued signals supporting cue discrimination during learning.
Topics: Male; Animals; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Association Learning; Habenula; Neuronal Plasticity; Punishment; Neurons; Cues; Acetylcholine; Synapses
PubMed: 37414924
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02155-3 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2023Third-party punishment (TPP) reflects people's social preference for fairness norms and is fundamental to maintaining fairness norms on a large scale. Several empirical...
Third-party punishment (TPP) reflects people's social preference for fairness norms and is fundamental to maintaining fairness norms on a large scale. Several empirical studies have shown that the offender's group membership impacts TPP, but the detailed mechanisms have yet to be fully elucidated. The current study used the third-party punishment game task to explore the relationship between group membership, perceived unfairness, anger, and adolescents' TPP. A total of 306 teenagers aged 12 to 15 were chosen as subjects through cluster sampling. The results showed that group membership (classmate vs. stranger) and gender can affect adolescents' TPP together, which manifests as adolescents enacting significantly harsher punishments on strangers than on classmates, especially for boys. Group membership indirectly affects TPP through the mediating effects of perceived unfairness, anger and through a chain mediation of perceived unfairness and anger. Moreover, gender positively moderate the relationship between group membership and perceived unfairness. Specifically, group membership significantly affects boys' perceived unfairness, but cannot predict girls' perceived unfairness. The above results can be used to guide adolescents toward appropriate justice concepts and moral awareness, thus enhancing TPP.
PubMed: 38146400
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251276